Puppet

in the lion's cage

It should feel natural to be waking up at six in the morning again, but my body felt groggy and sluggish as I dragged myself out of bed and to the bathroom to put on the silly-looking Foxfire uniform. It was white with light gray accents, representing a yeti, which is apparently my year's mascot. The worst part about the whole thing is the half cape. I mean, come on, a cape for a school uniform? Not even a cape, just a half cape. I feel ridiculous in the whole getup. The plaid skirt and knee-high socks were just outright diabolical. I'd look preppy if it weren't for the scowl on my face and all the big bruises and scars that covered the part of my legs that were shown, which I tried not to think about too much. I didn't do anything with my hair today, letting the natural waves hang down my back.

I wait downstairs and snack on what looks like some kind of muffin while the others rush to get ready.

I memorized my schedule last night, which wasn't hard since I have a photographic memory. Today is Monday, so I have Elvin history with Sir Beckett, lunch, linguistics with Lady Cadence, and then study hall.

Fitz comes down the stairs a little after I finished my muffin.

"Ready to go? We should head over in the next few minutes, or we'll miss the morning announcements," Fitz asks as he grabs a muffin for himself.

"Yep, all ready to go," I replied as cheerily as I could manage.

Biana's the one that comes rushing down the stairs next.

"Come on, we have to go! We're going to be late!" She ushered us up out of our seats as if we were the ones who were running behind.

I follow them to their Leap Master, which I must admit, is beautiful. Hundreds of small crystal orbs hung in the air like hail frozen in place. I was too busy admiring them to realize I should probably tell them I've never used one of these before Biana shouted out our destination and all the hundreds of orbs lit up and consumed us.

I shut my eyes away from the light and quickly focused my mind on the travel. It only took us a second to get there, but I felt a little disoriented since I didn't concentrate on the whole light leap.

I shake away the fuzzy feeling left in my head and look around at the hall that now surrounds me. Students bustled in, all forming a large crowd.

Biana and Fitz started walking towards it, so I followed, not sure what else to do. They seemed to know where they were going because they found their group of friends in a minute. I recognized all of them from that first dinner at Everglen. Keefe was there too and I'm surprised to find that I feel almost relieved to see someone who I recognized.

They all look over at me, unsure of what to say or do.

"Foster! Nice of you to join us. Ready for your first day?" Keefe said, saving everyone else from having to come up with some awkward question or comment.

I was about to reply to him when I was cut off by a booming voice, and I couldn't tell where I was coming from. It was a man's voice reading off what sounded like announcements about the school. It stopped about three minutes later with a "And have a beautiful day!"

"That was the morning orientation, there's one every day. Our principal, Magnate Lato reads them while the teachers take attendance," Fitz explains from beside me.

"What's your first class?" the girl with silver at the ends of her hair asks.

"Elvin History with Sir Beckett," I reply. They're all looking at me again and I feel like I'm being studied.

"No way! Biana, Keefe, and I all have that first too. We can walk you there when class starts if you want," the strawberry blonde, Dex, said.

There's something about him I like. Maybe it's his innocence, how he's somewhat clueless to what he was signing up for with the Black Swan and how his dimples show when he smiles. He feels safe, like a future friend.

I shake that ridiculous thought from my mind. What am I thinking? Wanting to be friends with someone in the Black Swan?

I tell myself it's just because I'm going undercover and trying to become fake friends with them, so my mind probably got mixed up.

"That sounds good, thanks," I say, giving him a small smile.

The crowd seems to be moving and the Black Swan members are too. They talk together in a way I've never seen before. They just chat about what classes they have next and what they're going to do after school, which has nothing to do with plotting against the Neverseen.

Maybe they just aren't talking about those plans because a Neverseen agent is around them. This is probably just part of their plan to get me to feel comfortable around here and share the Neverseens secrets.

Well, nice try Black Swan, it'll never happen.

"Excited Foster?" Keefe asks from slightly behind me and I suddenly realize he's been watching me watch his friends talk.

"Aren't you an empath?" I point out.

"That's correct, let's see, what does the Mysterious Ms. F feel in her dark soul today?" he asks and moves closer to me, which at first, I thought was so I could hear him better but too late I realize it's because he wanted a better reading of my emotions.

"We have some confusion, boredom, anticipation, and is that...jealously? Hmm, I didn't take you for the jealous type Foster. What's got you feeling that way?" Keefe teased, but I wasn't smiling back.

Keefe didn't need to know what I'm feeling, especially that last one. It was hardly true. There was no way I was jealous of some silly Black Swan members being close friends. I refuse to believe it.

Quickly, I went through the steps Vespera showed me to tone down my emotions.

Deep breath, then let your face fall blank, then focus on each emotion and picture them growing smaller and smaller until it's no longer there. I take a deep breath when I'm done, doing it in an impressively short amount of time.

When I focus back in after shutting down my emotions, I see Keefe staring at me wide eyed. It almost made me want to laugh.

"What?" What I ask, sounding more playful than I meant to.

"How did you do that?" he asked incredulously. "All your emotions, they just...faded."

I shrug, not sure what to say. I can't teach anyone that trick, I made I promise to Vespera. But elaboration wouldn't hurt...

"It's just dulling your emotions down, so it's hidden from empaths," I say casually.

"Can we talk about that after? Maybe at lunch? What time do you have lunch?" Keefe asked, obviously intrigued by the skill.

"I have lunch after Elvin History," I reply, not answering if we could talk about it right now because I'm not sure what he wants to know about it or how much I can tell him.

"Perfect, that's mine too. That's everybody's lunch that you just met with, actually. We can walk there together after class," Keefe said, and I wonder when we switched from being at each other's throats to talking as if we're friends.

And I don't know why I'm not mad about it.